Fist of the North Star (1986) Hokuto no Ken (original title)

Director:

Toyoo Ashida

Writers:

Buronson (comic)
Tetsuo Hara (comic)
(more)

Release Date:

27 September 1991 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Action | Drama | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Plot:

After a nuclear holocaust tears the world apart, mankind is forced to the harshness of not only the oppression of others who are much more powerful...

Plot Keywords:

Nuclear Holocaust | Fist | Anger | Hand To Hand Combat | Brawl

Cast

Akira Kamiya	...	Kenshirô (voice)
Yuriko Yamamoto	...	Yuria (Julia) (voice)
Kenji Utsumi	...	Ken-Ô (Raoh) (voice)
Chikao Ôtsuka	...	Jagi (voice)
Toshio Furukawa	...	Shin (voice)
Kaneto Shiozawa	...	Rei (voice)
Tomiko Suzuki	...	Rin (Lynn) (voice)
Teiyû Ichiryûsai	...	Bat (Bart) (voice) (as Mie Suzuki)
Arisa Andô	...	Airi (voice)
Junji Chiba	...	Ryûken (voice)
Hidekatsu Shibata	...	Zeed (voice)
Junpei Takiguchi	...	Heart (voice)
Takeshi Aono	...	Fox (voice)
Hiroshi Ohtake	...	Jackal (voice)
Daisuke Gôri	...	Uighur (voice)
Takeshi Watabe	...	Kiba Daiô (Fang King) (voice)
Jôji Yanami	...	Gulf (voice)
Kôhei Miyauchi	...	Old Man (voice)
Yasurô Tanaka	...	(voice)
Kôji Yada	...	Colonel (voice)
Banjô Ginga	...	Z Punk with seeds (voice)
Yûsaku Yara	...	Nunchaku man (voice)
Masayuki Katô	...	(voice)
Shigeru Chiba	...	Thug with saw in head (voice)
Ryôichi Tanaka	...	(voice)
Masaharu Satô	...	(voice)
Ikuya Sawaki	...	(voice)
Kôzô Shioya	...	(voice)
Michitaka Kobayashi	...	(voice)
Reiko Suzuki	...	Old Woman (voice)
Yôko Kawanami	...	Dying Woman (voice)
Tarô Ishida	...	Narrator (voice)
John Vickery	...	Ken (voice: English version)
Melodee Spevack	...	Julia (voice: English version) (as Melodee Spivack)
Michael McConnohie	...	Shin (voice: English version)
Tony Oliver	...	Bat (voice: English version)
Holly Sidell	...	Lynn (voice: English version)
Dan Woren	...	Jagi (voice: English version)
Wally Burr	...	Ken-Ô (Raoh) (voice: English version)
Jeff Corey	...	Ryûken, Narrator (voice: English version)
Gregory Snegoff	...	Ray / Uygle (voice: English version)
Barbara Goodson	...	Alei (voice: English version)
James Avery	...	Fang (voice: English version)
Steve Bulen	...	Wise Man (voice: English version)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Catherine Battistone	...	Old Woman (voice: English version)
Michael Forest	...	Jackel (voice: English version) (as Mike Forest)
Wendee Lee	...	Pillage victim (voice: English version)
Dave Mallow	...	Hart (voice: English version)
Matthew Mercer	...	Various Characters (voice: English version)
Doug Stone	...	Torture Victim (voice: English version)
Kirk Thornton	...	Head Banger (voice: English version)
Tom Wyner	...	Thugmeister (voice: English version)

Directed by
Toyoo Ashida

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Buronson		comic
Tetsuo Hara		comic
Susumu Takaku

Produced by
Shôji Kishimoto	....	producer

Original Music by
Katsuhisa Hattori

Cinematography by
Tamio Hosoda

Film Editing by
Masaaki Hanai

Art Direction by
Motoyuki Tanaka		(as Shiko Tanaka)

Production Management
Jerry Beck	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Masahiro Hosoda	....	assistant director
Junnen Umezawa	....	assistant director

Art Department
Hajimi Ebikawa	....	assistant art director
Reiko Kitayama	....	art coordinator
Take Torimoto	....	art coordinator

Sound Department
Kanji Fukunaga	....	sound director
Taneyoshi Imaseki	....	sound editor
Hideyuki Tanaka	....	sound director

Animation Department
Masami Suda	....	animation director

Other crew
Ken Ariga	....	production planner
Munehisa Higuchi	....	film coordinator
Chiaki Imada	....	chief executive director
Tsuneichi Murakami	....	production coordinator
Yoshinobu Nakao	....	project co-operation
Masa Oka	....	project co-operation
Yachie Shiba	....	bookkeeper
Yoshio Takami	....	production planner
Satoko Ueki	....	completion

Production Companies

• Shueisha
• Toei Animation Company
• Toei Company
• Toei Doga

Distributors

• Discotek Media (2009) (USA) (DVD) (as Eastern Star)
• Fox Network (1994) (USA) (TV) (broadcast premiere)
• Streamline Pictures (1991) (USA) (dubbed)

Also Known As:

"Hokuto no Ken" - Japan (original title)

Runtime:

Spain:105 min | USA:110 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Germany:16 | New Zealand:M | Australia:M | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | Spain:13 | Iceland:16 | USA:R | Canada:13+ (Quebec)

Company:

Shueisha

Trivia:

Real anatomy was studied to depict the gory explosions of the villains.

Quotes:

Brave Old Villager:Why? Why would the man who killed Zender and saved our village send these animals here to kill us? I can't believe the fist of the north star would do such a thing!
Abusive Bad Guy:Oh yeah? Guess again!
[Raises his big hammer to kill but gets forcely and unexpectedly hit by Rei]
Abusive Bad Guy:Who's that guy?
Rei:My name is Rei and I am looking for the man you describe. The man with the seven wounds who calls himself fist of the north star.
Abusive Bad Guy:I'll give you this much. You got gutts walking in like this. Give me that! So, with all due respect. I'll let you be the one who cut his head off.
[Hands over a big saw to Rei]
Rei:That's quite an honor but I hate for you to miss all that fun on my account. Are you sure about this?
Abusive Bad Guy:Hey, what are friends for right?
[Rei easily and quickly uses the saw on the skull of the badguy]
[...]

Movie Connections:

Spin off Last Battle (1989) (VG)

Soundtrack:

Heart of Madness

The best Fist Of The North Star there is

I've just got through watching the first 36 episodes of the TV series of Fist Of The North Star on DVD and until a couple of days ago i thought the TV series came after the movie. The movie comes after the TV series. I have to admit that even though the series has more info and detail about the fighting styles etc i think that the movie is slightly better. It has better animation, better voice acting (in English) and is less repetitive. I watched the movie just over ten years ago and was quite literally blown away by it. It has action, adventure, comedy, gore, thrills, spills and for those people disgusted by the sex scenes in Urotsukidoji you'll be happy to know that FOTNS is sex free.

FOTNS is obviously to some extent based on Mad Max but a heck of a lot better. Only thing that bugs me (just like the series) is that the gore scenes are usually blurred or we see peoples shadows exploding. Kind of annoying. Also there seems that there are a few gaps in it which makes me wonder if there has been a scene or two edited out or cut down (atleast in the UK version).

I'll quickly give a brief summary of the story. It's about a guy called Ken who must get his girlfriend back from his former best friend Shin who beat up Ken, kidnapped his girlfriend and left him for dead. Ken walks through the barren wasteland (it's set after a nuclear war) and kills bad guys with his style of fighting. If he punches anybody they explode shortly after. In the meantime his eldest brother Raoh has amassed an army and is trying to conquer the world. There are also a couple of sub plots. One has this guy called Rei (or Ray?) looking for his sister and is also looking for the guy responsible for kidnapping her.

All this leads to an explosive finale. Fist Of The North Star along with Urotsukidoji is my favourite Japanese anime movie of all time. A definite must see but avoid the American live action film. That sucked the big one for sure. This great anime gets a perfect 10/10 from me.